Promoting Oxygen Electrochemical Reduction to Hydrogen Peroxide through
Fabricating Hierarchical Pores
Abstract
In this work, we demonstrate an effective approach to enhance the
activity and selectivity of carbon materials for hydrogen peroxide
(H2O2)production by means of interface engineering. Carbon black
and/or graphite are mixed with polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE)and
pore-forming agent to form a gas diffusion electrode for H2O2.
Structural characterizations find that PTFE not only acts as a binder,
it also changes the original pore size distribution of carbon materials
by increasing the number of mesoporous and micron pores. These unique
hierarchical pores enhance an efficient gas transmission and dispersion
network system. Meanwhile, a number of polymer phases are generated in
the inner of electrode with the size of 30nm-1μm, which enhance the
affinity of catalyst surface to oxygen. Under the detachable H-type H2O2
test device and optimized conditions, H2O2 concentration can reach
11.8wt%. The simple physical mixing engineering fabricating
hierarchical pores would be helpful to other electrochemical processes
involving gas-solid-liquid three-phase interface.